The Five Dollar Mail (Book 1: The Green & Book 2: Lynch's Boys)

Book 1: The Green (chapters 1-104)
Five dollars to mail a letter seems like a lot of money to shy farm girl Lily McMillian. When she's hired in the spring of 1860 by Old Man Lynch as a cook for his stagecoach and Pony Express station, she finds out why it's so expensive.

Dropped into a whirlwind of rowdy men and boys, fast horses, and frightening conflict, she inherits more than a pile of dirty laundry. She gains an unlikely band of brothers, a motley collection of rounders, miscreants, and troublemakers, all of whom are in sore need of someone to keep them in line.

Book 2: Lynch's Boys (from chapter 105)
Who would try to kill someone for a deed to a worthless piece of land? That question has plagued housekeeper Lily McMillian ever since she joined the crew of the Green River Pony Express station. To solve that mystery, she must make awkward allies of her brother Jesse, and the two rivals for her affection, Saint and Hellbender. Together, they will make a dangerous journey to a tiny town with a big secret.

Meanwhile, as the rest of the riders look forward to an easy week at the station, they discover that the intrigue surrounding Lily reaches farther than anyone thought. Wash, Storm, and their younger crewmates will be forced to defend the station from a terrifying menace.

This is the early draft of a published, ongoing Western adventure-romance series. My intention is to publish the draft here, a couple of chapters a week. If you don't want to wait, the first two books of the trilogy are currently available on Amazon, edited and polished, both as .99 cent eBooks or as nice, hefty trade paperbacks.

Contains some mild swearing and mild violence. It's a work in progress, so...pardon the dust.